BAGHDAD, Iraq — Legislation to manage Iraq’s oil industry won Cabinet approval Tuesday and could go before parliament for ratification within days, but political wrangling raised the possibility of delays in passing the long-stalled measure.

The legislation is one of two measures covering Iraq’s oil wealth.

The second, which would set up the mechanism to ensure oil profits are distributed properly, must still be passed by Cabinet. Government spokesman Ali Dabbagh said Tuesday that was expected to happen this week.

The reform of Iraq’s oil industry is considered the most important of several benchmarks that Washington says are crucial to indicating that Iraqi politicians can overcome religious and sectarian divisions to pass laws beneficial to all Iraqis. With the parliament due to recess for a month at the end of July and U.S. officials scheduled to present an Iraqi progress report to Congress in September, time is running short for the measure to become law.

The companion measures together are considered the only benchmark likely to be met, and officials involved in its drafting have made no secret of its importance.

Passage would be “a platinum-level sign that these guys can in fact make decisions,” said a U.S. Embassy official. At a news conference Tuesday, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki described it as the “most important” piece of legislation in Iraq.

But the effort has languished since February, when the Cabinet approved an early version. Differences quickly arose among Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni political blocs over that draft of legislation. Many of those differences rose to the surface again Tuesday.

After the first draft passed in February, the Kurds objected to what they considered an attempt by the government to take away regional control of oil field management.

Much of Iraq’s oil is in the Kurdish north, where the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan has enjoyed freedom to make contracts without central government involvement. Kurds charged that proposals in the early draft violated constitutional guarantees of regional autonomy.

Sunni and Kurdish parties also wanted better guarantees that the Shiite-led government would distribute oil proceeds fairly and quickly.

Recently, leaders of the main political blocs said they had overcome their differences.

However, in a statement released late Tuesday, the Kurdish Regional Government said it had not seen the latest draft approved by the cabinet, which has not been published, and might fight the legislation.

“We hope that the cabinet is not approving a text with which the KRG disagrees, because this would violate the constitutional rights of the Kurdistan region,” the Kurdish government said on its Web site.

A member of the main Sunni parliament bloc, the Iraqi Accordance Front, indicated that Sunni lawmakers also might try to block passage. The lawmaker, Ammar Wajeeh, said the legislation should not be passed until agreement was reached on constitutional amendments dealing with regional powers. But a parliamentary committee tackling proposed constitutional revisions is not expected to finish work until September.

Wajeeh said the Sunni bloc also worried that the law would infringe on Iraq’s sovereignty by opening the oil industry to foreign investment. “It will make it easy for these companies, especially American companies, to control it,” he said of Iraq’s oil.

Another problem is the ongoing boycott of parliament by the 44-member Iraqi Accordance Front. Lawmakers walked out of the assembly in June to protest other legislators’ efforts to replace the Sunni speaker, Mahmoud Mashadani. He was voted out last month for rude behavior.

Sunni politicians also are angry over a criminal investigation underway against a Sunni cabinet minister, and their six cabinet ministers are boycotting meetings. They were not present for Tuesday’s approval of the oil draft.

Wajeeh said there were no plans for the Sunni bloc to return to parliament. “If we see that the oil law will be against the interest of Iraqi people, we will work against it whether we are attending parliament or boycotting it,” he added.

Their comments contrasted with those of Dabbagh, who said the legislation was all but sealed.

“I don’t find that there is anything that is going to block or stop this law from passing,” he said, underscoring the disconnect among Iraq’s feuding political blocs.

The political squabbling coincided with a violent day in Baghdad, where at least 36 people died or were found slain. Eighteen people were killed in the northeastern neighborhood of Shaab when a car bomb exploded on a street near a market. The bodies of 18 men believed to have been victims of sectarian death squads were found across the capital.

Earlier, the U.S. military said an Apache attack helicopter had been shot down south of Baghdad but that the two crew members escaped with minor injuries. The Air Force then used two 500-pound bombs to destroy the downed helicopter to prevent hostile forces from recovering it, said the statement.

In western al-Anbar province, two Marines died in what was described as an accident not related to combat. Also in the province, the military said at least 23 suspected insurgents had been killed in two days of fighting south of the provincial capital, Ramadi. A military statement said the battle began after security forces got word that insurgents loyal to al-Qaida in Iraq had gathered on Ramadi’s outskirts to stage a series of attacks. Their intent was to reclaim the area as a base of operations, months after Sunni leaders in Ramadi switched loyalties to U.S.-led forces.

Toxins released by the algae have poisoned dolphins, manatees, tons of fish and even contributed to the death of a 26-foot-long whale shark. The deluge of dead and rotting wildlife strewn across beaches has threatened to upturn the vital Florida tourist season